Rahul Gandhi, the former President of the Indian National Congress (INC) on the 12th of December, criticised the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over farmers death due to the ongoing protests.
Mr. Gandhi cited a few media reports to claim that 11 farmers died in the last 17 days while protesting against the three agri laws.
Rahul Gandhi through Twitter lashed out at the Central Government for not showing concern to protesting farmers.
Mr. Gandhi asked, how many lives farmers need to sacrifice, so the Central Government would hear their plea and would repeal the three acts.
Mr. Gandhi said, “How many more sacrifices will the farmers have to make to get the agri laws repealed?”
The farmers of Haryana and Punjab are protesting against the newly introduced farm laws.
They called for a “Chalo Dilli” protest on the 25th of November and entered the 17th day of the ongoing protest.
Thousands of farmers, mostly from Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, are protesting at various border points of Delhi against the new farm laws.
The three farm bills are, the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill 2020, the Farmers Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Bil(Empowerment and Protection) and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill 2020, were cleared by the President of India.
According to the passed bills, the Minimum Support Price (MSP,) area of trading would be under the purview of the Indian Government.
The farmers fear of being at the mercy of corporates or zamindars for crop prices and it would affect their livelihood and financial conditions.
They also think the newly introduced bills would also demolish the Minimum Support Price (MSP) advantages for farmers.
However, the Central Government and Prime Minister Narendra Modi assured to continue the mandi system and MSP.
Mr. Modi, on the 12th of December said, The government at any cost is committed to protect the interest of farmers through “its policies and intentions.”
During an annual convention of Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI,) Mr. Modi said, “India has not made adequate investments in agriculture and private players did not explore the sector to its full potential, rather they worked in limited fashion”.
Meanwhile, 6 rounds of talks between the Central Government and the farmers unions failed without any solution.
Neither the Central Government is scraping the three laws, nor the farmers are accepting the laws.
Intensifying their agitation against the Central Government, the 132 different farmer’s associations called for another nationwide strike (Bharat Bandh,) on the 14th of December.
The last nationwide strike was called on the 8th of December, from 11:00 A.M., to 3:00 P.M.
Stay tuned for further updates.
